KMC’s water tax will not control wastage

Instead of measuring the consumption of water, the charges will be imposed on the basis of the diameter of water pipelines used by households.

The KMC is introducing a revised fee structure in a bid to set up “per point measurement” by billing households with a particular ferrule size. “We will implement the service charge for supplying water to houses that have 20 mm and 25 mm ferrule connections,” said Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattcharya, in his Budget speech for the 2008-2009 fiscal.

The KMC provides connections to 2,68,000 households. Of this number, 11,055 households have 20 mm ferrules. About 9,090 households have ferrules sized 25 mm. This does not form even eight per cent of the total number of household connections in the KMC area.

The total amount of money that can be earned as revenue through the implementation of this newly proposed service charge will not be more than Rs 2.5 crore.

The best way to keep track of water consumption is through water meters. “The new water service charge is a per point projection system. This is not the proper method to measure volumetric consumption of water. Measurements can be carried out in a proper way through the installation of water meters,” said a senior officer of the KMC’s water supply department.

According to the officer, the “unaccounted flow of water”, i.e. the amount of water that does not reach the consumers, is 35 per cent of the total supply.

The fitting of water meters will be able to monitor and stop this wastage.

In contradiction to the proposed water service charge, the installation of water meters will not only increase the revenue of the water supply department by 10 times, but will also ensure a 24X7 supply of municipal water in all households.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress MLA Saugata Roy moved an adjournment motion in the state Assembly on Tuesday regarding the service charge on water supply to be introduced in Kolkata soon.